Washington – Lindsey Halligan, who as the Justice Department’s top prosecutor prosecuting a pair of opponents of President Donald Trump, is leaving her position as her one-month term is up, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday night.
Halligan’s departure from her role as interim United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia came as several judges questioned her ability to legally remain on the job following a court ruling two months ago that said her appointment was illegal. She was appointed in September for a 120-day term that ended Tuesday.
“The circumstances that led to this result are deeply misleading,” Bondi said in a social media post on X announcing Halligan’s departure. “We live in a time when the ability of a democratically elected president to fill key law enforcement positions faces serious obstacles.”
The announcement followed two orders by individual judges that marked a dramatic new front in the ongoing clash between the Trump administration and the federal court over the legitimacy of Halligan’s appointment. Halligan, a White House counsel with no prior prosecution experience, was tapped for the role by President Donald Trump in September just to have a judge. two months later he ruled that the appointment was illegal.
In one order, M. Hannah Lauck, Chief Judge of the Eastern District of Virginia and a nominee of President Barack Obama, ordered the clerk to post a notice of the vacancy on the court’s website and in the news media, saying she was “requesting expressions of interest to serve in this position.” The judge noted that the temporary appointment granted to Halligan, who has since been nominated by Trump but not confirmed by the Senate, expired on Tuesday.
In a separate order, U.S. District Judge David Novak said he was striking the words “United States Attorney” from the indictment’s signature block in the case before him and barred Halligan from continuing to present herself with that title. He said he would initiate disciplinary proceedings against Halligan if she violated his order and insisted on identifying herself as the U.S. attorney in court filings, and said other signatories could also be disciplined.
“Regardless of all her machinations, Ms. Halligan has no legal basis to represent to this court that she holds office. And any such representation in the future can only be characterized as a false statement made in direct violation of valid court orders,” Novák wrote. “In short, this character of Ms. Halligan posing as the United States Attorney for this district in direct violation of binding court orders must stop.”
The order from Novak, who Trump appointed to the bench during the Republican president’s first term, followed defiant filing signed by Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch in which they stood by Halligan’s authority and accused the judge of abusing her power by demanding that Halligan publicly explain why she continues to identify as a U.S. attorney.
“Ms. Halligan’s response, joined by both the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General, contains a level of vitriol more suited to a television talk show and falls well below the level of advocacy expected of litigants in this court, particularly the Department of Justice,” Novák wrote.
“The Court will not engage in such sleight of hand and will instead analyze the several points Ms. Halligan offers to justify her continued identification of her position as United States Attorney in court,” he added.
Halligan was appointed to the acting post in September after the Trump administration effectively ousted veteran prosecutor Erik Siebert under pressure to bring charges against two of Trump’s political enemies, former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Halligan secured the charge, but the victory was short-lived. In November, U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that Halligan had been illegally appointed acting U.S. attorney and dismissed both cases. The Ministry of Justice appealed against the sentence.
U.S. attorneys, who serve in dozens of Justice Department regional offices across the country, are typically appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Attorneys general are empowered to directly appoint interim U.S. attorneys, who can serve for 120 days, after which federal district judges have the authority to appoint a prosecutor to serve until a vacancy is filled.
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